


Identity

by norcumi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff, GFY, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 21:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7137893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She sends a little holorecording anyways, wishing her well. Sabé pretends it is just a sweet gesture, a gift between friends. After the fifth time she finds herself mooning over the little holo, Sabé gives up and goes to face reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Identity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leechbrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leechbrain/gifts), [flamethrower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamethrower/gifts).



> This is Leechbrain‘s fault (as seen [here](http://leechbrain.tumblr.com/post/145582982689/norcumi-leechbrain-norcumi-leechbrain) \-- THANK YOU!) – by which I mean it’s probably all my fault but they encouraged me. 
> 
> And then Flamethrower encouraged me to post it here, so many thanks to her as well -- and also for providing invaluable help with tags!
> 
> (look, I just write the things, and follow other people's sound advice. You make one quick comment about an incidental threesome in a completely different fic, and then suddenly other people are making very good points about how two of those make a lovely ship....)

She thought she knew politics. Sabé had learned along with Padmé how to govern, first Naboo, then as a Senator. Oh, the rules were different when Padmé was in the Senate, but Sabé still had to pass as her friend when Padmé needed to duck out of meetings and whatnot, and being able to talk about political matters was a requirement.

Then the Senate votes themselves out of power.

Then the Empire is born.

Then Padmé dies.

Sabé knows many things. How to govern. How to fight.

How to survive.

Within half a year, she is trusted aide de camp to Bail Organa, and leading her own cell of Rebels on and near Coruscant.

* * *

She had thought she knew the Senate. Riyo Chuchi had been young when she was first elected, and she had not been chosen for her looks. Chuchi had navigated the treacherous swamps of intergalactic politics with aplomb and skill, but in the end…

She had been wrong. She had been _in_ the wrong. Riyo had trusted the Chancellor, thought that with centralized power he might _do_ something, to help the Republic, the people, the Jedi and clones who fought and died for peace and unity.

Friends, so many of them.

Gone, now. Traitors in name or deed, so many of them dead.

It does not take a political genius to see the numbers, track the timing, and realize that within a year, the vast majority of the clone army is dead, deserters, or virtually lifeless in the telling medical records that revealed listlessness and mental issues that could not be normal.

The Republic is already screaming under the demands her new Emperor is making.

Riyo Chuchi had not sworn her allegiance to the Empire, nor is the implicit conquest of the Republic binding. Her oaths are to the Pantoran people, and to the Republic they belonged to.

By the end of the first year, Riyo Chuchi has put out her first tentative feelers for the dissatisfied guerrillas already making trouble for the army, now much more human – and so much _less_ so, in a horrific way.

* * *

She pretends it is another regular communication, from the Senator of Alderaan to the Senator of Pantora. Meaningless numbers for meaningless bills that the Emperor can alter without any consideration other than his twisted whim.

Sabé is the first to whisper words of treason to Senator Riyo Chuchi. She watches the Pantoran closely, prepared for any number of “unfortunate accidents” that might need to occur.

Instead, Chuchi’s amber eyes go wide, then narrow in satisfaction. There is the faintest hint of relief, touched with just a bit of violence.

Good. Another ally.

* * *

She had thought Sabé was merely Bail’s talented, meek, _quiet_ aide.

Riyo is stunned when she hears the Rebel’s confirmation code whispered to her above several datapads of financial folderol.

The feel of that whisper lingers, and Riyo spends several weeks, off and on, wondering if it is because of the hope it offered, or because of the woman who delivered it.

That lasts until a covert assassination attempt, and Riyo has to fight alongside with one of Padmé Amidala’s former handmaidens – a story she does not learn until much later, after the firefight.

Sabé accounts for almost double the bounty hunters Riyo does, but she feels she’s handled herself adequately given that Bail had provided cover fire yet killed no one.

Bail has seniority, the attack has occurred on his apartments, and he is uninjured, so he is busy dealing with the officials – such as they are, nowadays. Riyo has to dab bacta on several cuts Sabé had survived, from shrapnel that wild shots and attempts to drive the three from cover. Sabé returns the favor by tending to the burn on Riyo’s shoulder.

The touch tingles, _lingers_ just as much as the whisper had.

* * *

She thought it was a passing interest. Sabé has always been drawn to strong women, in any number of ways. Riyo fascinates her. Strength balanced with gentleness, courage wrestling with an insecurity that hides deep. Undiluted integrity.

She makes it several months past the failed assassination attempt saying nothing. Doing nothing about what has to be just a crush.

Then a mission goes badly. She wakes up from a bacta dip that she learns had 50/50 odds of survival. Riyo is a Senator, with a busy schedule and a cover it is important to keep. She sends a little holorecording anyways, wishing her well. Sabé pretends it is just a sweet gesture, a gift between friends. After the fifth time she finds herself mooning over the little holo, Sabé gives up and goes to face reality.

* * *

She had never dared to contemplate the reality of a kiss. When Sabé declares her feelings, and graces Riyo’s cheek with a tentative, feather-light peck, it is so different from what Riyo knows of the woman that it takes a bit to register.

Sabé’s second kiss, when Riyo makes her interest quite clear, is more like what she would expect. It is fire, deep and burning and wonderful.

* * *

She still keeps her job at the forefront, though Bail takes losing his assistant to a social life with good humor. Sabé appreciates that Chuchi knows that Bail, and the Rebellion, are important too. She also appreciates a girlfriend and lover who has her own thorough work ethic, and Chuchi is good at the politics she is so devoted to. It is a joy to watch her work, and Sabé never minds taking a date to the shooting range.

* * *

She is voted out of office in a totally natural turn of events, and Riyo is fairly certain that Palpatine has no hand in it. Her successor is a decent, quiet being that the people prefer, so Riyo sticks around to teach hir the ropes. Matters go well, and the new Pantoran senator turns a politely blind eye to how Senator Organa’s aide is often around.

* * *

They make a devastating team for the Rebellion. They take covert missions, Sabé quietly taking on the occasional assassination that Riyo ignores because some things are just not to her nature. Sabé appreciates the acceptance, even as she revels in a more active revolt – with her partner at her side.

They stop at Pantora for a time, and Sabé is introduced to Riyo’s very extended family. According to Riyo, the welcome is no cooler than usual.

She might be appreciated by her people, but Chuchi is rather woefully under-appreciated by her relatives.

Sabé takes a great deal of vicious delight in proposing to Riyo in front of many of them, capping off a thoroughly boring quasi-formal dinner with faintly scandalized Pantorans muttering amongst themselves – and a beaming Riyo who spends the rest of the evening giving Sabé soppy smiles and wiping her eyes on occasion.

* * *

They get married on Alderaan, Bail presiding while his daughter is a charming little dictator who wants to know everything. It takes Riyo an absurdly long time to realize the wide-eyed naïveté is a cover for a razor sharp mind, a realization that only comes when Leia asks a direct question about the Rebellion. They are in private, the question shows enough insight that the girl has to have some understanding – if not actual involvement – with the Rebels.

Sabé is not surprised, though she asks Riyo to keep a careful eye on Leia’s bodyguard while they are on planet. She doesn’t mind, but she does wonder who the clone was. The man’s beard hides the shape of Jango Fett’s face at a casual glance or three, but Riyo owes too much to too many of those men. She doesn’t ask, because if Bail has the man guarding his precious daughter, then that is credentials enough for her.

* * *

She is alone when Alderaan dies. Sabé often takes solo missions – no assassination attempts this time, just a courier run that one woman alone can make much easier than two. She knows something is wrong, but not what, and all Sabé knows is that she is spending too much time uneasy, sick to the stomach, and haunted with too many memories of Padmé. She has a job to finish, so despite the discomfort eating at her mind, she doesn’t abandon the mission.

* * *

She doesn’t know where her wife is, when Alderaan dies. Riyo can only stare at the holofeed as rumors and Imperial propaganda trickle, then flood in. She has to keep a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, because Sabé was last known to be on planet, visiting Bail who is still ostensibly her employer.

That could readily mean Sabé was actually off-planet, doing things for the Rebellion.

That could readily mean Sabé was actually sitting with Bail, going over spreadsheets – and Bail has been confirmed by the Empire as dead.

The Rebellion has confirmed it as well.

When an exhausted, haggard Sabé slips into their apartments, haunted in the way that only those who have just gotten the news are, it is a relief.

* * *

They mourn together.

They abandon their public personas to go underground for the Rebellion full time. They discuss it for days, weeks, and they decide that with Leia Organa at the helm, then matters will go in their favor. Bail confided in Sabé, who his daughter’s mother was. No mention of the father, and Sabé made a conscious decision to not ask if Bail had an arrangement with Breha, or if Anakin Skywalker had indeed been as foolish as Sabé might recall.

It doesn’t hurt that the name ‘Skywalker’ is being heard more and more. The son of Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with No Fear. Ace pilot. The man who brought down the Death Star.

Jedi.

The word gets whispered around, until it becomes a roar of defiance. They have a Jedi. The beings who protected the Republic for centuries are not dead. Once again, Skywalker – though his son, if nothing else – has defied all odds, and come through for a victory.

Pilot. Jedi. Hero.

Moreover, this is a Jedi working for Leia Organa, daughter of Padmé Amidala.

* * *

They are on Endor when the Empire dies. Riyo is in one of the bases, working to coordinate troops and battle reports. Sabé is in the middle of combat, dutifully keeping close to Princess Leia.

Riyo is grim, injured, and only somewhat worried about her wife. She knows there are only two deaths Sabé will ever accept: one that guarantees Riyo’s survival, or one that guarantees Leia’s survival.

Riyo considers the latter to be an acceptable fate for herself. Sabé not surviving is equally unacceptable to her.

They make it through, though not uninjured. They join the celebrations with the natives, watching what food they take from the Ewoks (none but the ration bars that are being shared around freely), and talking quietly with the old clone who still plays indirect bodyguard to Leia.

She is surprised to find that she is content.

* * *

They continue the battle against the crumbling Empire – but it _is_ crumbling. Sabé cannot stop beaming when their identities come out as members of the Rebels, and Pantora sends out a request for a competent Senator to represent them in the new governing body. A known former Senator, a war hero, and a woman who doesn’t mind keeping her wife around as the best damn assistant in the Core (and outside, but one doesn’t need to brag) – what more could anyone ask for?


End file.
